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Weather Bulletin!
The U.S. Weather Bureau (forerunner of the National Weather Service) inaugurates the Severe Weather Unit at the WBAN (Weather Bureau-Army-Navy) Analysis Center in Washington D.C. Armed with recent research and decades of past research into the formation and behavior of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, this is the first attempt to offer the military’s growing severe weather prediction capability to the American public. In these early days, before the adoption of specific types of weather watches, the WBAN Severe Weather Unit issues weather bulletins for tornadoes and severe thunderstorms alike; by early 1953, the Severe Weather Unit also issues “outlooks” with more general predictions about the probability of severe storms.
The 22nd episode of the science fiction drama series Men Into Space airs on CBS, starring William Lundigan.
The 90th episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Susan Gordon stars.
British broadcaster ABC airs the 50th episode of Sydney Newman’s spy series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman.
ABC airs the 24th episode of Leslie Stevens’ anthology series The Outer Limits. Tim O’Connor (Buck Rogers In The 25th Century) and Hari Rhodes (Earth II) star.
The 23rd episode of Irwin Allen’s science fiction series Lost In Space premieres on CBS, starring Guy Williams, June Lockhart, and Jonathan Harris.
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For the first time in the history of American TV, an announcer is heard over the closing credits of a network TV program, reassuring viewers that the show (in this case, Star Trek) has been picked up for a second season – and making a direct request that the series’ ardent fans bring their concentrated letter-writing campaign to an end. That campaign has actually been secretly organized by Gene Roddenberry with the help of several prominent SF writers and Star Trek fan Bjo Trimble.
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ABC airs the 21st episode of Irwin Allen’s sci-fi series Land Of The Giants, starring Gary Conway, Don Matheson, Deanna Lund, and Don Marshall. Ron Howard guest stars.
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The 32nd episode of The Bionic Woman, starring Lindsay Wagner and Richard Anderson, airs on ABC. Sam Groom (Police Surgeon, Otherworld) guest stars.
NBC airs the fifth episode of Quinn Martin’s horror/sci-fi anthology Tales Of The Unexpected. (This series is not to be confused with the longer-lived British series of the same name, created by acclaimed author Roald Dahl.) Ricky Nelson and Carl Weathers (Rocky, The Mandalorian) guest star.
JPL navigation engineer Linda Morabito, double-checking raw Voyager 1 images to ensure that the unmanned space probe is properly aligned for its encounter with Saturn in 1980, discovers the first evidence of active volcanoes on another body in Earth’s solar system: a plume of sulfur erupting over 150 feet above the surface of Jupiter’s moon Io. Scientists rush to check Voyager 1’s other Io images, and find that Voyager’s cameras caught more than half a dozen eruptions in the act.
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The seventh episode of Richard Carpenter’s fanciful retelling of the Robin Hood legend, Robin Of Sherwood, airs on ITV, starring Michael Praed, Mark Ryan, Judi Trott, and Nickolas Grace. John Abineri (Doctor Who, Blake’s 7) and John Nettles (Bergerac, Midsomer Murders) guest star in the second season premiere.
The 12th episode of the Hammer Studios-produced horror anthology series Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense airs on ITV; the series will be shown later in the U.S. under the title Fox Mystery Theatre. Peter Graves (Mission: Impossible) guest stars.
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The Soviet Union’s unmanned space probe Vega 2 makes its closest approach to the nucleus of Halley’s Comet, within 5,000 miles of the comet’s icy core. Hundreds of photos are taken and transmitted back to Earth, along with analysis of the dust and gas surrounding the comet. Within a week, Vega 2’s mission is complete, and the probe is allowed to fall into an orbit around the sun as Halley continues to speed back toward the outer solar system.
The 19th episode of Steven Spielberg’s anthology series Amazing Stories airs on NBC. Sam Waterston (Law & Order), Helen Shaver (Poltergeist: The Legacy), Dick Cavett, and Tim Robbins guest star in an episode directed by Martin Scorsese.
The 20th episode of the science fiction crime drama Super Force is broadcast in syndication in North America, starring Ken Olandt, Larry B. Scott, and Patrick Macnee (The Avengers). Dr. Dre guest stars.
The week-long national syndication window opens for 
The seventh episode of the sci-fi crime series TekWar, based on William Shatner’s novel series, airs as part of the Universal Action Pack syndication package. Greg Evigan, Eugene Clark, William Shatner, and Torri Higginson star.
ABC airs the third episode of Hypernauts, created by Christy Marx (Jem) and Ron Thornton (the visual effects artist behind the CGI of Babylon 5), and starring Marc Daniel (Fast Track) and Carrie Dobro (Crusade). Janet Greek (Babylon 5) directs.
The 80th episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman airs on ABC, starring Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher. Lane Davies, Fred Willard, and Hamilton Camp guest star.